CDC said that scientists discovered a new coronavirus variant, BA 2.86, and that higher-risk individuals should be cautiousAs authorities revealed that a new Covid-19 variant has been detected in the US, medical experts are emphasizing that high-risk persons resume masking to prevent potentially deadly infection. Warnings from these physicians come amid an ongoing increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that scientists have discovered a new coronavirus variant, BA 2.86, during routine monitoring of wastewater. Officials said that this variant's large number of mutations" has prompted concerns that it could evade immunity derived from vaccination and prior infections more than other variants. Continue reading...

Solar-powered vehicle will spend two weeks roaming lunar surface to help scientists understand geology of moonIndia's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has rolled its rover on to the moon's surface after its successful landing at the lunar south pole.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced the rover had ramped down from the lander and India took a walk on the moon". Continue reading...

Our research into women who kill acts as a reminder to challenge our preconceived notions of others

Royal Society review looks at non-pharmaceutical interventions when applied in packages of several measuresMeasures taken during the Covid pandemic such as social distancing and wearing face masks unequivocally" reduced the spread of infections, a report has found.Experts looked at the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) - not drugs or vaccines - when applied in packages that combine a number of measures that complement one another. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: does the UK's first successful womb transplant mean that men could one day carry babies? Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. Yesterday afternoon, a private jet crashed in the Tver region near Moscow, killing all 10 passengers on board. Among them, according to Russian authorities, was Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner paramilitary chief who launched an armed mutiny in June. For the latest on his dramatic yet somehow unsurprising death, visit our live blog.For today, I'll be looking at a very different story, the UK's first ever womb transplant. It's been hailed as a fertility landmark and the dawn of a new era, offering dozens of infertile women the chance to have babies every year. The recipient was a woman born without a womb; the donor was her elder sister, who already has two children. Continue reading...

Twenty years after the first pass at sequencing the entire human genome, the Y chromosome has finally been fully decoded. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Mark Jobling, professor of genetics at the University of Leicester, about why it has proved so tricky, the role of the Y chromosome in our bodies, and the likelihood of it eventually dying out altogetherFind more Guardian reporting on genetics here Continue reading...

Study of chronic fatigue syndrome also finds women are more likely to develop worse symptoms over timeWomen with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) tend to have more symptoms than men and are more likely to develop increasingly severe symptoms over time, according to initial results from a major study.It is already known that women are at higher risk of CFS, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and the latest study, called DecodeME, provides new insights into how their experience differs from men. The study found that women who have ME/CFS for more than 10 years are more likely to experience increasingly severe symptoms as they age. Continue reading...

Latest technology uses tiny electrodes on brain surface and is faster than synthesisers which rely on eye trackingA severely paralysed woman has been able to speak through an avatar using technology that translated her brain signals into speech and facial expressions.The advance raises hopes that brain-computer-interfaces (BCIs) could be on the brink of transforming the lives of people who have lost the ability to speak due to conditions such as strokes and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Continue reading...

After surgeons perform first womb transplant in UK, we look at other major advances through the years

India has raised its spacefaring profile and will now be seen as low-cost provider for missions possibleFor all the risks, for all that was riding on a successful landing, the descent to the moon's surface was remarkably uneventful, if not exactly stress-free. The Vikram lander, part of India's Chandrayaan-3 mission, dropped steadily on its thrusters to the rock below, slowed to a hover as it approached the ground, and finally came to a rest on the dusty terrain.When confirmation came that the lander was down, anxiety in the control room gave way to cheers and applause. With the soft touchdown, India becomes the first country to land a probe at the moon's south pole, a rugged region where deep craters lie in permanent shadow and where ice could provide water, oxygen and fuel for future missions. The first will be on the moon itself, and in lunar orbit, but they could also supply trips to Mars, with the benefit that the materials do not need to be lifted off the Earth's surface at great cost. It is a region of key scientific interest. Continue reading...

Vikram lander touches down at lunar south pole shortly after 6pm India timeIndia has become the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon, in a historic moment that drew cheers at watching parties around the country.India is on the moon," Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, the chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft's Vikram lander touched down shortly after 6pm (1230 BST) near the little-explored lunar south pole in a world first for any space programme. Continue reading...

India has become the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon, in a moment that drew cheers at parties around the country. The Chandrayaan-3, which means mooncraft" in Sanskrit, put down its Vikram lander shortly after 6pm (1230 GMT) near the little-explored area in a world first for any space programme. People across the country were glued to television screens and said prayers as the spacecraft approached the surface

I've thought long and hard about UFOs and interstellar predators, and I know I should be terrified. However ...Are we alone in the universe? There's hardly an answer to the question that isn't mindblowingly terrifying. The most comforting one, once you know all the options, is that we're not, but the US government is on top of it: various whistleblowers" have recently claimed that aliens have been smashing their craft into remote corners of the world for the past few decades, but federal officials have been retrieving the remains and covering it all up.It's a pleasing idea, because it suggests that we are still in the race for the most imposing sentient beings in the galaxy. We haven't cracked interstellar travel yet, but the beings who have are still working with tech that can be brought down by a bit of dust in the rotors. A bit more focused effort, a sprinkle of reverse engineering, and we'll have our own interstellar armada up and running before any alien civilisations decide to take a serious pop at us. In the meantime, there's always Will Smith.Joel Snape is a writer and fitness expert Continue reading...

Exclusive: Letter signed by more than 1,200 leading figures calls for unambiguous statement' about climate crisisThe Royal Society is under pressure from more than 1,200 leading academics to issue a clear condemnation of the fossil fuel industry.The academics have written to the association of the world's most eminent scientists calling for an unambiguous statement about the culpability of the fossil fuel industry in driving the climate crisis". Continue reading...

According to actor Michael Sheen, the Welsh steel town has an extremely high number of sightings' of unexplained phenomena. Photographer Roo Lewis set out with his Port Talbot UFO Investigation Club Continue reading...

Pioneering operation could allow dozens of infertile women a year to have babiesSurgeons have performed the first womb transplant on a woman in the UK, opening up the possibility for dozens of infertile women to have babies every year. The woman's sister was the living donor of the womb.The 34-year-old was incredibly happy" and over the moon" with the success of the nine-hour operation, according to the medical team behind the pioneering procedure. She now plans to have two children using IVF. Continue reading...

This electrical superhighway' helps to control everything from our breathing to our immune system. Could stimulating it transform physical and mental health?I've made a cup of coffee, written my to-do list and now I'm wiring up my ear to a device that will send an electrical message to my brainstem. If the testimonials are to believed, incorporating this stimulating habit into my daily routine could help to reduce stress and anxiety, curb inflammation and digestive issues, and perhaps improve my sleep and concentration by tapping into the electrical superhighway" that is the vagus nerve.From plunging your face into icy water, to piercing the small flap of cartilage in front of your ear, the internet is awash with tips for hacking this system that carries signals between the brain and chest and abdominal organs. Continue reading...

Technology has the potential to make deep cuts to emissions of the potent greenhouse gas but requires major investmentBacteria that consume the greenhouse gas methane could slow the rate of global heating, according to a study out this week.Methane is a potent greenhouse gas emitted from energy (natural gas and petroleum systems), industry, agriculture, land use and waste management activities. Continue reading...

Light-sensitive proteins below colour-changing cells mean fish can take a photo of their own skin from the inside'What do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh. What about a fish that can also use its skin as eyes"? Well, that would be a hogfish.Hogfish often use their ability to change colours to support their camouflaging abilities. They also have light-sensing skin, or skin vision, that can help them see" their surroundings. Continue reading...

Australian engineers say they can make concrete nearly 30% stronger by incorporating processed grounds into the materialIn an idea that fittingly arose over a cup of coffee, researchers have devised a technique to recycle used coffee grounds to make stronger concrete.Engineers at RMIT University say they have developed a way to make concrete nearly 30% stronger by incorporating processed coffee grounds into the material. Continue reading...

Scientists find substantial ecological changes' after greening initiative by major road in Melbourne, AustraliaThe benefits of urban greening initiatives are increasingly well documented: they can help mitigate the effects of urban heating, and improve physical health and mental wellbeing. And even small greening actions in cities can significantly improve local biodiversity, new research suggests.Increasing the diversity of native plants in a single urban green space resulted in a sevenfold increase in the number of insect species after three years, Australian researchers have found.Sign up for Guardian Australia's free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

Antarctica is experiencing disturbing changes - from missing winter sea ice to disintegrating ice shelves - and it's almost certain things will get worse

Why do we perspire? Do men do it more than women? Can you really sweat out the toxins'? Here's all you need to knowIt's getting hot again - and that means sweat. With the possible exception of Prince Andrew, humans are constantly producing insensible perspiration" - the baseline level of sweat - to some degree. Despite that, we know surprisingly little about it. According to Sarah Everts, the author of The Joy of Sweat, which explores the science, culture and history of sweat and our attempts to fight it, there is a dearth of sweat research; there's so much more fundamental research on every other body fluid". So what do and don't we know? Continue reading...

Apple cider vinegar is touted as a cure-all for everything from excess weight to digestion issues and blood sugar spikes. Supplement gummies' are the latest trend, billed as a tastier way to incorporate apple cider vinegar into our diets. Posts promoting them have been viewed millions of times on TikTok, but are the health claims backed up by the science? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Carol Johnston, a professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University who has been studying vinegar for 20 years, to find out what the evidence tells us Continue reading...

Research found MRI is significantly more accurate than current tests, which are linked to overdiagnosis and overtreatmentUsing MRI scans to screen men for prostate cancer could reduce deaths from the disease significantly, researchers have suggested.Scientists said current tests, which detect the level of the protein prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood, have been linked to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of low-risk cancer. Continue reading...

People with high chance of developing disease could be warned up to seven years before symptoms appear, research indicates3D eye scans widely used in high street opticians could help to identify people at high risk of developing Parkinson's disease up to seven years before they have symptoms, data has suggested.The finding added to growing evidence that the use of eye scan data could help to detect neurodegenerative diseases and followed recent studies suggesting that the technique could help to identify early signs of Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia. This emerging field of research, known as occulomics", is also being investigated as a means of identifying individuals with a propensity for cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Continue reading...

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The answers to today's slithery enigmasEarlier today I set you the following two puzzles. The first is a retrograde analysis puzzle about snakes and ladders, and in the second you have to work out a symbol. Here they are again with solutions.1. Brand new it's retroThe game starts with each player putting their marker on 1.Each player roles a single die. If you roll a 6, you get an extra throw.The players take turns in a fixed order.You go up ladders, and down snakes. It is possible to go up two ladders, or down two snakes, or up a ladder and down a snake on the same turn.The winner is the player who lands exactly on 100. (If you are on 98 and roll a 3, you bounce back' and land on 99.)If a player lands on a square occupied by another player, the player is not sent back to square 1. Continue reading...

Link to climate activism is seven times stronger for anger than it is for hope, say Norwegian researchersAnger is by far the most powerful emotional predictor of whether somebody plans to take part in a climate protest, research suggests.The study, which asked 2,000 Norwegian adults how they felt about the climate crisis, found the link to activism was seven times stronger for anger than it was for hope. The effects were smaller for other actions, but fear and guilt were the best predictors of policy support, while sadness, fear and hope were the best predictors of behavioural change. Continue reading...

Is Elon Musk's vision for the future a libertarian fantasy or scientific imperative?The question of human settlement on Mars is, for many people, not if" but when". Elon Musk's SpaceX company began speaking of the Mars Colonial Transporter around 2012. Its latest incarnation, the prototype for a massive spaceship called Starship that can house up to 100 passengers and crew, took off from Texas in April but exploded before reaching Earth's orbit. Whether that counts as a success or not depends on who you ask, but it testifies to Musk's determination to see a human presence on Mars in the next decade.His view that colonising the cosmos is humankind's ultimate and inevitable destiny is widely shared. The moon, lacking an atmosphere, short on water, and with weak gravity, is not a very attractive stepping stone, but Mars has none of those drawbacks and is considered a much more viable place to build the first off-world settlement. Once the exclusive province of science fiction stories and films," according to Nasa, the subject of space colonisation has rapidly moved several steps closer to becoming a reality thanks to major advances in rocket propulsion and design, astronautics and astrophysics, robotics and medicine." Continue reading...

The actor has called out double standards for ageing stars in the movie industryCharlize Theron has said she wants to fight against" what she perceives as unjust double standards for female actors over 40 in Hollywood.The actor, 48, said she despise[s] the concept" that while men age like fine wines" women do so like cut flowers". Continue reading...

Chandrayaan-3 moves into prelanding orbit amid failure of Russian missionAs it was announced that Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years had crashed on to the moon, India's own mission, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, moved into prelanding orbit.News on Sunday of the Russian failure was met with excitement and nervousness in India: excitement that India was now poised to win the race to become the first country to land a craft on the moon's south pole; nervousness that its mission could also go horribly wrong at the last moment. Continue reading...

Curators at National Railway Museum at Shildon say they are delighted and proud to get Gaunless bridge backIt may not look like it helped change the world but the 200-year-old Gaunless Bridge did just that, its supporters say, and its name deserves to be shouted from the rafters.Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon in County Durham, is preparing to welcome home what is the world's oldest surviving iron railway bridge. Continue reading...

Retrograde analysis of the classic board gameUPDATE: The solutions can be read hereThe retrograde analysis of a game is the analysis of what happened in order to reach a particular state of play. There's a large literature about this sort of problem in chess.Today's first puzzle is retrograde analysis of snakes and ladders.The game starts with each player putting their marker on 1.Each player roles a single die. If you roll a 6, you get an extra throw.The players take turns in a fixed order.You go up ladders, and down snakes. It is possible to go up two ladders, or down two snakes, or up a ladder and down a snake on the same turn.The winner is the player who lands exactly on 100. (If you are on 98 and roll a 3, you bounce back' and land on 99.)If a player lands on a square occupied by another player, the player is not sent back to square 1. Continue reading...

Using drones and acoustic equipment, hundreds of volunteers from around the world take part in the surface watchIt was 90 years ago that Aldie Mackay, manager of the Drumnadrochit hotel, burst into the bar one evening to tell dumbfounded patrons she had just witnessed a water beast" in Loch Ness.It was this sighting - zealously reported in the Inverness Courier - that began the modern myth-making around an elusive monster surviving in the depths of the Highland loch - and next weekend hundreds of Nessie enthusiasts are expected to take part in the biggest organised hunt for the mysterious creature in 50 years. Continue reading...

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Observers will need a clear eastern horizon to see planet rise in the dawn twilight

Medications with semaglutide such as Ozempic and Wegovy are being studied to see if they can help other conditionsThey have taken the celebrity world by storm as a slimming jab and become a vital tool for managing type 2 diabetes. Now drugs such as Ozempic are being researched to look at whether they could help conditions ranging from alcohol misuse to dementia.Ozempic, a type 2 diabetes medication, and Wegovy, which is licensed for weight loss, contain the drug semaglutide, while a similar drug, liraglutide, is available for both purposes under different brand names. Continue reading...

All you need is some standard kitchen equipment, says Dr Ken VinesIt's not as difficult to estimate the weight of a human hand as John Pye thinks - and can be accomplished in the average kitchen (Letters, 17 August).Take a transparent jug that is tall enough to take the outstretched hand, although a loose fist could be used with a shorter jug. Weigh the jug. Put in a measured amount of water that is sufficient to cover the hand without spilling over when the hand is put in. This is best done using kitchen scales that are accurate to one or two grams. Continue reading...

It's often healthier to embrace the possibility of a new family dynamic and let go of punishing old patternsAfter several years of trying to salvage her long relationship with Rosa through couple's counselling and other efforts, Kara eventually made the difficult decision to end it. After the separation, Kara found herself estranged and isolated from Rosa's extended family, whom she had shared close ties with for more than 30 years.The enduring pain of being excluded from family gatherings and communications made her wonder if she was being punished for her choice to leave. Caught in a constant struggle, Kara oscillated between attempts to reconnect and repair, or avoidance because the rejections were far too painful. Continue reading...

Craft spun into unpredictable' orbit before planned touchdown could take place, Russia's state space corporation saysRussia's first moon mission in 47 years has failed after its Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the moon, dealing a significant setback to the embattled Russian space programme's attempt to revive its Soviet-era prestige.The state space corporation Roscosmos said it had lost contact with the craft at 1157 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday. Continue reading...

In rural Somerset, I gained new understanding of gardening - and the Caribbean islandsHome. It is a word heavy with meaning. One definition refers to the place of your belonging, the place that you are from. I grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, a former British colony whose peoples have come to or been forcibly brought from many places to mix more or less uneasily on these two small land masses joined together for political expediency. I grew up in my grandmother's and my mother's gardens, lush spaces filled with plants brought from many places, with the backdrop of the hills of the Northern Range rising green beyond them both.As a child, I did not know many of the stories of the people I came from. I still don't know as much as I would like, but I have learned that, like the plants, they came from many places, places such as Portugal, China, Africa (but where in Africa is still unclear), Scotland, and Ireland, explaining my last name. The stories seemed to come from everywhere except the actual place of my birth, making the notions of home and belonging difficult to take root. Continue reading...

Roscosmos says spacecraft got in trouble while attempting to enter a pre-landing orbit targeting south poleRussia has reported an abnormal situation" on its moon-bound Luna-25 spacecraft, which launched earlier this month.The country's space agency, Roscosmos, said on Saturday that the spacecraft ran into unspecified trouble while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit and that its specialists were analysing the situation. Continue reading...

As the medicinal use of psychedelics gains mainstream attention, fears remain over their effect on mental health and the need for safe administrationIn June 2021, 32-year-old actor Kate Hyatt travelled to a farmhouse near Great Malvern in Worcerstershire for a plant medicine retreat that she hoped would improve her mental health after a difficult time during the pandemic lockdowns. While there, she is believed to have taken a substance called wachuma, or San Pedro cactus, a powerful hallucinogen used by Indigenous people in the Andes for thousands of years.But Hyatt did not experience relief; instead, her mental health worsened. Three months later, she described being in some sort of psychotic break" and feeling as if her brain was going to explode. Later that autumn she took her own life. At the subsequent inquest, the coroner's report linked her worsening symptoms to the hallucinogens she had consumed. Continue reading...

This exploration of where, why and how we sleep (or don't) is as intelligent as it is eccentricAll our body wants is to sleep, it wants to leave us, head back to the stable, a worn-out horse," writes Marie Darrieussecq, at which I, a worn-out human, think yes. In a recent interview, Darrieussecq reflected on how much of her work is concerned with inhabiting. Who has a right to inhabit this planet, she asks, and who doesn't? Though she was talking about her novel Crossed Lines, in which a Parisian woman finds her life becoming bound up with that of a young Nigerian refugee, she could just as well be referring to Sleepless (Pas Dormir in the original French), a book that is - what? A memoir/interrogation/painting/song of insomnia, her own and that of others. It's a book about where, why, how we sleep and don't sleep; about how to find a place in the world where sleep can happen, a stable for the worn-out horse.Sleepless isn't a book that's straightforward to convey, at least not briefly. On the page it's fragmentary, footnoted and studded with photos and illustrations. It's panoramic in its survey of insomniac literature, and also softly intimate where it touches on the author's own life. In its range and genre it's unpindownable. Darrieussecq is one of the most prolific and distinguished living writers in France with a truly impressive body of work. All her familiar acuity, humour, humility and intensity are evident in Sleepless. Continue reading...

It is unclear whether BA.2.86 causes more severe disease but its detection in several countries has put scientists on alertA new Covid variant that is causing concern among scientists due to its large number of mutations has been detected in London.The variant, named BA.2.86, has been detected through genetic sequencing, although only a handful of such sequences have so far been reported. The first was reported in Israel, with the variant since being detected in Denmark and the US. Continue reading...

Doctors say test may diagnose childhood illnesses in less than an hour, helping quickly identify life-threatening infectionsA new blood test that would enable the commonest childhood illnesses to be diagnosed in less than an hour could transform" medical care, doctors say.Currently it can take doctors hours, days or even weeks to identify which of 18 infectious and inflammatory diseases a child with a worryingly high temperature is suffering from. Continue reading...

Loss of sea ice and rising temperatures in the ocean around Antarctica have a huge effect on the Earth's climate, but the ability to track them is laggingA chronic shortage of observations of the vast ocean surrounding Antarctica is hindering more accurate forecasts of the consequences of the climate crisis, a meeting of 300 scientists has concluded.The Southern Ocean has an outsized influence on the Earth's climate, absorbing masses of the extra heat and carbon dioxide caused by human activities. Continue reading...

De-aged image offers likelife image of how prince may have looked during unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1745The face of Bonnie Prince Charlie has been recreated using death masks that depict him as he would have looked during the Jacobite rising of 1745.The prince, who was renowned for his good looks, has captivated a new generation of interest through the TV show Outlander. Continue reading...

Outbreaks may be addressed sooner by avoiding need for sending stool samples abroadPolio could be detected in wastewater in half the time using a new technique, helping public health authorities to respond quickly to deadly outbreaks, a study has found.The research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), supported by the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), represents the first time that (DDNS) has been used to detect polio, reducing the average testing time from 42 to 23 days, with an accuracy rate exceeding 99%. Continue reading...